Te Tiriti Position Statement

Focus on Potential is on a journey of developing and continuously improving cultural understanding and knowledge.

Focus on Potential strives to have a Tiriti-led kaupapa. We accept that te ao Māori, tikanga and te reo Māori has been marginalised and supressed by a dominant Western culture over many generations.

We strive to do our upmost in supporting the development of a health and rehabilitation system that is fair and equitable for all and upholds the provisions of Te Tiriti.

Kāwanatanga

Governance

  • We support Māori governance and look to Māori led organisations to work alongside Māori clients.
  • We recognise our responsibility to engage Māori expertise so the best needs of the clients can be met, and recognise that we will not always be the most appropriate service for our clients.
  • We will support our clients by further developing our relationships and partnerships with Māori led organisations.

Tino rangatiratanga

Independence

  • We advocate for rangatiratanga to be enshrined in the wider health care and rehabilitation systems to enable Māori self-determinism and authority.
  • We support Māori for Māori approaches and promote the autonomy of Māori services.

Taonga

Treasures

  • We actively support the protection of Māori taonga, both tangible and intangible.
  • We promote the learning and use of te reo and tikanga, and the protection of the whenua through environmentally responsible actions.

Ngā tikanga katoa rite tahi

All the rights

  • We support equity in access to services and equitable outcome for all.
  • We are in the process of conducting a cultural audit of Focus on Potential to see where we can make changes and improvements to our systems to increase access, be responsive to individual needs, and partnering with appropriate services to increase outcomes.

Te ritenga Māori

Māori spiritual practices

  • We respect Māori spiritual practices; we ask clients if and how they would like to observe tikanga and act accordingly.
  • As a minimum, all our clinicians are able to engage in waiata and karakia and understand the significance of these practices.
  • We promote ongoing training, experiences and development for all clinicians to practice in a culturally safe and mana enhancing way.